BOSTON — The Maple Leafs route to seventh heaven has once more been diverted through the hell of TD Garden.

Despite the spate of first-round upsets around the NHL, the Boston hex continues, three Game 7 wins against Toronto in this building in six years, Tuesday’s 5-1 loss denying the Leafs a trip to Columbus in round two.

The East and West were tantalizingly wide open for any team with 12 more victories in them. That’s not to be for the Leafs, who were the last Canadian team alive this spring, but still haunted by the league’s longest Stanley Cup drought of 52 years.

The Leafs had won the series’ opener, Game 3 and then a second time in Boston, but could not stop ‘getting in their own way’ to use coach Mike Babcock’s phrase, and bury the Bruins. In the same visitors’ room — in almost the same positions they stood in last April — the Leafs struggled for words.

“It sucks,” regular-season leading scorer Mitch Marner said. “We believed in this team, had a lot of confidence in this team. When your season ends early, it sucks, but (that anger) has got to stay with us. We have to be hungry for this next year and make sure we come back pissed off.”

Patrick Marleau, running out of Cup chances as he crowds age 40, also felt the pain of what could have been had Toronto put its many strong individual performances in this series together at key times.

“To go into battle with these guys to feel we can win and do some major damage in the playoffs and to fall short, it’s extremely frustrating,” Marleau said. “ It was right there for us, two games to eliminate them. It’s a matter of getting that job done and having that killer instinct. We showed it at times, but it’s hard to put teams away. It’s another lesson learned.”

Unfortunately school’s now out for summer.

Babcock, who has not been able to coax his team beyond the first turn in playoffs the past three years combined, fell to 3-7 in Game 7s and is looking at a lengthening list of opening round defeats here and from Detroit.

“It’s disappointing,” Babcock said. “I thought our series this year compared to last, we were a way better club. In the end, we weren’t rewarded. I’m proud of the guys, I thought we worked. I think we’re really taking steps and going in the right direction, but we’ve got to get through this (first stage).”

This time, the Leafs gave up two early horrible goals on defensive turnovers, their continuous weak team link. Travis Dermott’s stretch pass was picked off and eventually buried by Joakim Nordstrom, while Jake Gardiner dropped a puck in No Man’s Land behind his net. Auston Matthews called it a miscommunication involving himself to take some heat off Gardiner, but the latter is now a minus-10 in three Game 7’s as a Leaf.

Toronto came back with an all-out second period burst in which John Tavares scored and mates such as Matthews, Zach Hyman, Marner, Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson did everything but get another past Tuukka Rask. That push persisted into the third, until Boston’s fourth line produced their second goal of the game by Sean Kuraly before locking it down with an empty netter.

Now it’s a summer to contemplate the fate of a few at the end of their Leafs linelines, such as Gardiner and Marleau. General manager Kyle Dubas has some salary cap shifting to do, as well as sign Marner. He was one of the Leafs along with Tavares, Matthews, Jake Muzzin and Morgan Rielly to have series’ highlights.

“I’m in my 10th year, these opportunities, you recognize and appreciate them more and more,” said Tavares who wound up with 49 goals in his first year. “ You don’t take any of them for granted. You want to make the most of this, and we didn’t. At some point you’re going to have to lick your wounds, look yourself in the mirror and find ways to improve and how can we get better and find a way to break through.

“We have a lot of talent, a lot of youth, a lot of growth still ahead of us, but just to really realize, you have to make the most of every chance you get.”

Boston coach Bruce Cassidy stuck with the same lineup and most of his matchups, the Patrice Bergeron line against Tavares, David Krejci on Matthews.

But Nordstrom’s weak short-side goal on Frederik Andersen to open the scoring was tough to digest for the goalie who played his heart out much of the season and was a factor in all three wins.

The Leafs lost Tuesday despite keeping Brad Marchand, Krejci and David Pastrnak off the board. They stayed out of the box to avoid exposing their troubled penalty kill, but were 3-for-16 with the man advantage, missing their only two chances in Game 7.

The Leafs were seeking their first road win in a Game 7 since Nik Borschevsky’s overtime winner in Detroit 26 years ago. Boston has now defeated the Leafs in six straight series dating back 50 years, its longest losing streak against any opponent.

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